Statistics Canada announced that the country's railways carried a total of 31.0 million tonnes of freight in November, up 3.9% from the same month last year.

The Federal agency reports that total rail freight originating in Canada increased 3.6% from the same month last year to 28.3 million tonnes.

Non-intermodal freight increased 3.1% to 308,000 carloads in November. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totalled 25.4 million tonnes, up 3.1% from the same month last year. A rise in tonnage of colza seeds and other agricultural products, hydrocarbons and lumber offset declines in tonnages of iron ores, wheat fuel oils and crude petroleum and other chemical products and preparations.

Intermodal freight loadings increased 7.2% to 190,000 units from November 2015 to November 2016. The 7.4% increase in containers-on-flat-cars moderated the 2.0% decline in trailers-on-flat-cars. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic increased 8.7% to 2.9 million tonnes.

Freight traffic received from the United States rose 6.5% to 2.6 million tonnes, as a result of a 7.3% increase in non-intermodal freight and a 2.8% decline in intermodal freight from the United States.